Republican 'cavalry' arrives with a Trump-backed $150 million ad blitz in key races

For months, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton was outspent on the air in Texas, first in a bruising primary, then as Democratic nominee James Talarico spent millions of dollars to introduce himself to voters.

That all changed this month with a massive money bomb from Republican super PACs and dark money groups, including President Trump's MAGA Inc. and Texas PAC, which is aligned with Senate Republicans.

All told, pro-Paxton ad reservations for the month of September add up to more than $94 million, enough to swamp the roughly $20 million supporting Talarico in the same timeframe. According to the tracking firm AdImpact, that GOP total for September seeking to boost the scandal-plagued Paxton is more than Democrats have spent the entire cycle on ads in Texas.

Last week at the Republican convention in Dallas, Paxton, the state's attorney general, made no secret of the fact that he needed backup.